I completely missed this story in August. The DR Congo are sending rats (rastronauts?) into space via rocket:
Jason Stearns puts it best:
I’m so glad the Congolese government is investing money in sending rats into outer space. It makes the war in the East tolerable to know that Congolese rodents are in orbit.
See his other picks for most unusual Congo news of 2009.
2 Responses
Oh Mauro. You always make me feel guilty, mostly because you are always right.
I felt a little guilty being glib, but it was a hurried post. My cab was waiting.
I do get kind of weepy when they are all cheering and calling it a great victory with what little they have.
The perils of being a blogger…
So, if you watch the video, it’s actually kind of a nice story. It’s not about the government. It’s about engineers doing what they can with what they have. They are realistic about their objectives, and the budget obviously is not high. This instinctive temptation to mock African initiative apparently still needs to be consciously resisted.